Are you among the many people who picked up a Chromecast simply because it was cheap and kinda cool? If you are and have an Android device or only planned on using it for your computer it's fine. However, if you're like some folks and thought it might work 100 percent with BlackBerry only to find out it's a bit of hassle to get any apps to work, you're in luck. A new app called Cast has now arrived in BlackBerry World and it offers up the ability for BlackBerry 10 users to get at least some use out of their Chromecast on a BlackBerry 10 smartphone with very little hassle.

Cast is available for $2.99 and it adds the ability to natively cast YouTube videos from your BlackBerry 10 smartphone after a minimal set up process of adding your Chromecast IP address to the app settings. After that, simply open up a YouTube video, tap the share button and choose cast from the options. Your chosen YouTube video will then start playing on your Chromecast. Simple and easy, just the way it ought to be.

To be perfectly honest, there's nothing special about the way the app looks. In fact, it's pretty much just a black window that shows a reset button and some options and allows you to search for YouTube videos within it but that's not really the point. The point is the functionality it adds to your device overall and hopefully the developer will keep adding Chromecast compatible sites to the app because again, it only works on YouTube right now.

Is the ability to cast YouTube videos from your BlackBerry 10 smartphone worth $2.99 to you? I dunno. But at least the option is there and I like options as I'm sure most of you do as well.

lol are you serious??? I spent the whole of today and a lot of other days trying to add more features to this app, what did you do apart from announce to the whole world how little you understand about how complex a device the Chromecast is, and how tight you are? ;)

I find it hard to take seriously an accusation of greed from someone who wants everything for free or next to nothing. And you all wonder why Devs are moving off the BlackBerry platform? Comments like this make me wonder why I bother at all with sharing cool ideas like this with people.

Take a long hard look at yourself before you call someone else greedy.

Well its a shame you feel that way. If the difference between me and someone else is when someone unfairly calls me a name like greedy I call it out, then yes, guilty as charged. No one who deals with me has ever been insulted by me the way I have been in this comments thread to put it bluntly. How do you feel when someone calls you greedy when you've put your heart and soul into something just out interest?

Chromecast is great. If u have an android tablet like I do download TV Portal app. It has every show and tons of movies that you can cast to your TV. Its not in playstore for obvious reasons but if you Google , TV portal u can download from slideme website. This app has made buying my chromcast so worthwhile. Every show and movie u can think of in one app to stream or download! Awesome !!

Why do you need that when if you have a Blackberry z30 or q10 you already have Miracast (Wi-Fi Direct) support which allows you to get anything mirrored to your LCD screen without needing any installed software. Unfortunately the z10 is too old for this Miracast stuff but every modern cell phone or tablet has this protocol support save for Apple and their iOS walled garden.

Miracast should mirror anything on your phone screen over to an LCD screen. I wish I had it on my z10 but the next round of Blackberry phones should all have it. Miracast has been built-in into the Android OS for a few revs now and Windows 8.1 has it standard and most laptops have it (save for Apple obviously).

Chomecast is garbage and it requires and app to be loaded and it works over your existing Wi-Fi network only in the 2.4Ghz N band which is already very poor performance verses what you get in 5.0ghz space. With Miracast (Wi-Fi Direct) you get to keep you normal Wi-Fi open for data while you have a separate Wi-Fi Direct path with 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz N and 5Ghz 802.11 ac options for way better video performance or content out to a large display.

Another really good technology that has to be coming to future Blackberry phones is MHL support which charges your phone and gives you 4k out options

my experience of a miracast device is that it seems to take more of the phones resources, and is prone to intermittent connection faults, and periodic interference. At least that is the case with my Q10, and a Netgear Push2TV adaptor. Oh and Chromecast comes in at 35 GBP uk, vs about 70 for the netgear in my country. The Chromecast is cheaper and the interference and connection issues don't happen on a Chromecast. I would say Miracast is 'garbage' myself, and the biggest waste of money I ever made was the miracast adaptor I bought, which is why I wanted to give people some more options with this app to get some better value with the Chromecast.

Chromecast is not garbage. I like it a lot. It's much more user friendly. I have both miracast and a chromecast at my house. I love how the chromecast automatically switches inputs on my television and starts playing. Miracast does not do this. It also saves the battery on your device as once you send it to your chromecast, your device is not responsible for streaming it anymore. Also, you are not required to have the chromecast app on your device, that is just to set it up. You can set it up using the app, or your laptop, whatever is easy for you. I have been able to get both YouTube and netflix working on my blackberry and streaming to my chromecast and I hope that blackberry gets on board to open up this functionality more.

So i know this was posted 7 months ago but MiraCast is not completely compatible with every single SmartTV its only compatible with select brands of SmartTV's and i know this first hand from being a TECHNICIAN with all smartphones and from also having 5 different SmartTV's in my house and MiraCast is only compatible with 2 of the 5 TV's in my home so apps like this are very useful tools to have

I have a Samsung TV and it has a YouTube app that syncs with my YouTube account. This allows me to cast YouTube videos through the TV's app and the YouTube mobile site on my z10. All I have to do is selected the sync button at the top of the YouTube mobile site ( after I have launched the app on my TV) and select my TV, find the video I want and select play on TV. Works like a charm. No app needed.

For YouTube you can use the mobile site which BlackBerry 10 phones have an icon for. Use the instructions to pair it with your Smart TV. Another option is the YouTube Android app, at least until the last working one for BlackBerry 10 (1.0.0.5332). Syncs through Wi-Fi with Smart TVs, no need for additional hardware.

I work on the principle of what I like to call 'coffeeware'. This app, like most of the stuff I write, I write for fun. The price is roughly the price of a cup of my favourite coffee. If we met to discuss the app, it is the money I would pay for a stranger to enjoy a coffee on our first meet over our discussions. If you like my app, all it costs you is a price of a cup of coffee. If you begrudge that outlay, then, if you want to develop a free alternative I won't get upset

at the moment the pebble support is provided by a 3rd party app called upfront. It currently echoes the messages on the hub to your smartwatch assuming you are a talk2watch user also. Both Upfront and Talk2Watch are free, and the devs are friends of mine and I like to support their work, hence I put this in. e.g. if you have sent a video, it gives feedback that it has been sent it to the chromecast. If you stop it, it gives feedback that it has been stopped. And in the new version awaiting approval with BlackBerry currently, you have an option to autodiscover your chromecast via upnp. If it finds one, it will echo the ip address to your smartwatch. I may implement deeper features, but currently the whole app is designed to be a simple integration piece, not a competitor to some of the excellent YouTube apps on the market.

Thanks for developing this! There is definitely a void as the new OS update wrecked the ability to use the older android you tube app. Do you have any plans to allow integration with netflix or other chromecast supported apps?

thanks. I am trying to get it to work yes, but it is not straight forward due to google changing a lot now they have a proper API which, yes you've guessed it, we can't get on BlackBerry 10. This is a start , and I hope to bring more as and when I can. Any and all apps I can get the commands accepted by the device will be incorporated in the app I assure you though.

Seems everyone is assuming we all have smart tv's. The Chromecast plugs into a hdmi port on any tv and then to your wifi effectively turning a standard tv in to a smart tv. I have a chrome cast on 3 tv's and have no trouble streaming video,music or web content from a £30 android tablet (there plenty of free apps to do this) , I use dream share on my PC to cast all my media content from there and the chrome browser has an extension to cast the page you are viewing or your entire screen to the chrome cast, ideal for playing games on a much larger screen, in my opinion well worth the 29 quid I paid for each dongle.

I had Chromecast working well with a sideloaded Android Youtube App on my Z10. Unfortunately the latest BlackBerry OS upgrade broke that functionality. This app may partially solve the issue. DLNA works well on the Z10 but no Miracast. It would be really useful if BlackBerry could sort out the Google Play Services issues with their Android runtime. I would love to get Netflix casting working.

hiya, i am not familiar with writing playbook apps at this time, but I have to say I did have another Playbook project in mind, so I may try and pick it up. I still get a lot of use out of mine, and have long wanted to learn enough to have a stab at it . No promises, but its not out of the question is all I can say right now....

well i'm really touched by that - thank you for saying that, after some of the upsetting comments above, it reminds me of why I love doing this stuff, thank you. Honestly, I don't want you to think I make promises I can't keep, but as for a playbook version, I am seriously considering it - its just that right here today and now, i've never written a playbook app so i have a lot of learning to do :) It interests me though very much, even though its a dwindling user base, I'd still like to achieve it. Can I just say lets see for now?

Keep up the good work because the app that I just downloaded works Great ! It took me 5 seconds to setup with Chromecast and start was youtube on my TV. To my surprise, it even works with the Netflix app on my Z10. You should mention that in the app description in blackberry world.

I don't think its something new and someone should pay. there is already an official youtube apk which works with chromecast without any need for setup even. I have been using it for months. its available in android apk forum on CB.

Sold! I use a Chromecast at the cottage the five or six times a year that I'm there, and I'd love to be able to drive it with my Z10. More functionality than YouTube would be great (as would PlayBook functionality, but I understand that's reaching). Definitely worth the price of a cup of coffee, as the gentleman said.

For anyone who is interested I have spent the day adding more features today. Now you have the ability to autodiscover your chromecast, grab detailed diagnostic information off your chromecast, rename it to whatever you want, reboot it and even reset it.

Don't forget this app gives full notifications to the Hub, is BBM connected, and even sends notifications to your smartwatch, as well as being an integrated share target from within other apps and the core OS. If thats not something new for you all, I don't know what is ;) Thats all for now folks, other than a commitment to bring you anything new I can.

And guess what, the price is still the same extortionate 3 dollars / 2.00 GBP in my money, and I haven't put it up for the new features added, not now, not ever. Gosh I'm shameless...

For those of you who 'get' this app, the release should be with you in a few days BlackBerry allowing. Any support needed, provision is made in app for you to be able to make contact with me, and I'd love to hear any constructive feedback you may have or help you with any issues you may find.

For the rest of you, I'm sorry you don't like this or don't need it, I've done my best to fully describe and represent it and its capabilities though, so at least you won't feel tricked into buying something that doesn't meet your needs.

But....but.....but.....but.....but.....but.....it doesn't do my laundry for me, and you are holding a gun to my head forcing me to buy this app, and now I will have to buy a HDTV just to use this app; and then I will look at the $3 I spent for this app and wonder how I can get my money back, if my new Smart TV can do this without any special highly-priced software!!!
Devs these days......:)

I just saw your comment. Then I am curious how I got Netflix working with Chromecast ? I tried it before with the Chromecast apk but it didn't work so I uninstalled the apk. After downloading cast, Netflix gives me option to play on this device or my Chromecast.

hiya - i have just tried what you said and your are right, netflix does now have the ability to cast. I don't know if I can take credit for that in my app though? I know I couldn't do it before, but I should be clear t, this may just be the latest apk - I haven't catered for it in my app, unless it is an unintended side effect. Thanks for pointing it out though!

Just so you know you do not have to have Cast to use Netflix with Chrome Cast. Just get the most recent version of Netflix from Mobile 1 Market or Amazon store. Netflix has the API built in to look for Chrome Cast devices. If it can see yours an icon will show at the top of the app. I have tested this with my Z10 and my wifes Z10 that does not have Cast installed on hers. It is not required. All cast does is lets you use YouTube for now.

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